What Could Have Been
by Little Tsu
Summary: Seika is a wandering chef that works occassionally for the IGO whose life is anything but easy. In fact, not only is she fairly aquainted with the Four Heavenly Kings, but she also has a part of her past that she tries to keep a secret from everyone; something that had caused her to act the way she does now. The decisions she makes in life now might effect more than just herself...
1. Chapter 1

_Little Tsu: Ok so um...I really love this series so I figured I'd give it a try on how I'd do with it. Hopefully, it won' turn out too badly.x.x_

**What Could Have Been**

_**{3yrs ago}**_

_"You're with Gourmet Corp.? Why am I honestly surprised ta find this tid bit out? Seriously, what the fork Cedre?!"_

_Drifting his dark gaze onto the short statured teen before him, the young man known as Cedre, who was the Culinary Head of Branch 6 for Gourmet Corp., sighed softly to himself when he spied the look of utter disappointment in the magenta eyes that he had grown to adore. However, unlike his usual habit of collecting the eyeballs from beasts as a hobby, he could never bring himself to taking these eyes before him from their owner. Reason being?...Well, the owner was that of a fifteen-year-old girl that he had surprisingly become close to soon after he had met her a few years back during one of his breaks away from Branch 6. He had just recently been placed as the new Culinary Head; having worked from the ground, up so to speak._

_Shaking his head lightly, he studied the girl before him carefully. She was his junior by six years, though that hadn't stopped him from actually becoming friends with the girl even if that had innitially been a total accident on his part. She stood at only five feet and beheld a tiny, yet lithe figure that kept her abilities hidden. Her deep magenta eyes stood out like a beacon against her messy lavender hair that fell in and around her delicate features and halted at her shoulders; not a single scar blemmishing her smooth cream colored skin unlike the three scars on his own features that fell straight down over his right eye and cheek that halted all the way down to his jaw and the two smaller ones directly in the corner and below that eye across his face nor like the piercings that he possessed with one on the inside corner of each brow and the three on the lower portion of his right cheek. Those, topped with his randomly sharp teeth and overall almost gothic look to his appearance, one could say that his appearance was the exact opposite of the younger girl before him. It made him almost wish he could taint her._

_"Listen, I've been with Groumet Corp. a while now Seika. Not my fault you're just now figuring it out." As his dark eyes became heavy lidded, revealing the guyliner even more prominantly around his eyes, he noticed the varying emotions passing through her usually expressive eyes. It was the flash of hurt that he spied for just a single instant that caused Cedre to force himself to stand his ground and keep from trying to console his friend. Instead, he said something that he knew more than anything that he'd eventually regret saying. "Hell, I'm surprised that you took so long to figure it out. You had no damn clue that I was just using you this whole time to see if you'd be worthy of being used by Groumet Crop. someday."_

_The moment those words left his mouth, a resounding smack echoed around them. With his head jerked to the right, he glanced down at the girl before him out of the corners of his eyes. Her hand had left a decently nasty print on his cheek and tears filled Seika's eyes as she glared up at him. "You ass...I can't believe I actually thought you were my friend...You're nothin' but a forkin' lier and monster! I hate you Cedre!" With that, the young girl whirled away from him and ran off; leaving the older chef to continue standing there as he allowed his gaze to drift towards the ground._

_Seika would most likely never know, but...those words had actually cut Cedre deeper than any blade or attack ever could and because of that, he knew all the more that he had regretted saying those lies to her and driving her away..._

_**{Present Time}**_

"...Coco, why am I here visitin' you again? You know I'm a busy girl."

"Seika...You're a wandering chef. You fix and prepare meals in their natural habitat so you don't work for anyone and you make your own schedule." Spying the blush on the girl's features as she quickly glanced away from him to avoid his knowing gaze, he allowed a very faint chuckle to escape his lips. "No matter how good you are at lying to others, you can't pull any lie with me; not with these eyes of mine, you can't." The girl before him had grown a considerable amount since he first found her three years ago. She had apparently gone through a great deal of emotional trauma and she ended up with quite the amount of trust issues. In fact, for a while, she refused to allow him anywhere near her or know anything at all about herself. He had eventually managed to gain her trust over time, but her past was still full of holes for him that he didn't know about; the reason behind her state of being when he first found her being the biggest mystery of all.

Compared to then, Seika had truly grown. Her eyes were still as sharp as ever, but she now possessed a curved scar in the shape of a claw on the inside corner of her left eye and a smaller outward curved scar on the outside corner of it; the monster that had done that having barely missed her losing said eye. Her hair was also longer now as it halted mid back in length when down, but was currently up in its usual style held in a high ponytail with two braids along the side of her head and also held within said ponytail. Her choice in attire was simple as she wore nearly knee high black boots for travel, slightly baggy black jeans with the left pants leg torn off at the thigh, which that thigh possessed a pouch for her Melk Knife, black fingerless gloves with the back of the gloves also bare, and a sapphire blue sleeveless hoodie that showed off her middrift. Over all, her appearance had undergone a transformation from young, innocent teen, to an eighteen-year-old young woman who held almost no innocent light within those deep magenta eyes of hers anymore.

"Earth ta Coco. Come in 'gentleman' of the Four Heavenly Kings...Snap outta your damn thoughts before you find yourself with a shaved head pretty boy!"

Well, that got him to snap out of his thoughts. Focusing his gaze back onto the teen before him, he sighed softly and shook his head. "For a chef, who is beyond delicate with her foods and seemingly a natural with foods that deal with special preparation, you lack such tenderness towards people."

"You're lucky I even trust you Coco so zip it before you'll be needin' ta eat outta a tube from now on." The look on her face was deadpan and that she didn't really appreciate his smart remarks. Overall, she looked dead serious with that threat of hers and to be perfectly honest, lately, her threats tended to be followed through if she was pushed far enough and they didn't take her warnings seriously merely due to her 'harmless' appearance.

Sweatdropping slightly towards her threat, Coco shook his head lightly and lifted his hands in front of himself as a show of peace. "Fair enough. I called you here Seika because Gourmet Corp. has been making their move more and more. On top of that, some of the chefs that are within the top 100 rank in the world have been going missing and we have a strong feeling this has to do with part of Gourmet Corp.'s plan."

Watching the girl's faintest reactions towards this news, completely naked to anyone's but Coco's eyes, he spied the faintest of muscle tension and the twitch of the fingers on her left hand while her arms were crossed over her chest. Thinking to continue further with this, he did so. "Lately, there hasn't really been anymore GT Robot activity. The ones that we defeated a months back, back at Biotope 1, seemed to have been their strongest; the ones controled by Gido, Cedre, and Starjun...Even outside of these GT Robots, Vice Chefs like GrinPatch and Tommyrod have made their appearance as Toriko had actually fought both of them..." As he spoke and filled Seika in more and more on this information, he had seen the muscle tension increase slightly more at the mention of the names...Or rather in the instant in time when he said one _certain_ name...

"What's your point Coco? I may be a chef, but I have gourmet cells coursin' through my veins. On top of that, I have Ace with me. I won' be captured so easily ya know...I'm not some helpless little girl." Seika's eyes seemed to ignite in anger towards the thought of Coco possibly thinking that she actually needed protection. Scoffing to herself in irritation, she finally turned around and headed off. "I'm outta here. I have food ta hunt down and prepare. And also, for your information Coco, I may not work for a restaurant, but I **do** work for the IGO in a similar manner that you and the other three Kings do..."

Sighing softly in dismay towards this, Coco rose up onto his feet and took a few steps towards her. "Seika, please listen to me. I only wish for you to be more careful and alert. I understand that you have trouble with trusting others due to something that had happened in the past, but I care a great deal about you. You're as much family to me as Toriko, Sunny, and Zebra are. I don't wish for anything bad to happen to you and have Gourmet Corp. get their hands on you..."

Halting at the door at hearing Coco and the almost desperate tone his voice took, Seika tilted her head down a bit as her hand rested on the door knob. Keeping silent for a moment as she thought about how to respond, she finally spoke up. "Coco...I know you say you care a lot about me...And I **do** trust you despite how long it took you ta gain it...But you have ta understand Coco. I'm not some helpless girl anymore. I'm a talented chef and a skilled fighter. I don't need ta form a combo with a Gourmet Hunter ta get protection while huntin' for rare ingrediants." Turning her head to glanced behind herself from over her shoulder, Seika finally offered the older man a faint smile. "...I'm fine on my own Coco..." With that, she opened the door and stepped outside before actually walking to the edge of the cliff and pushing off; leaping over the canyon as she landed on the mainland again where her partner was waiting for her. A soft coated white raindeer-like beast with a capture lvl of 70 was waiting for her, though this one's capture lvl was even higher and actually immeasurable; his fangs and sword-like metal antlers showed how deadly this large mammel was and it wasn't even full grown either as this Sword Horn was still a young one and only half the size of an adult.

Walking over to the beast, Seika smiled faintly as the young Sword Horn lowered himself towards the ground so his legs bent under his form to allow his human to climb up onto his back. Once she had, the teen chef felt Ace straighten back up on all four of his paws before turning around and walking off; both knowing that Coco was standing at his doorway, watching them leave. As they left though, Seika sighed softly to herself as her eyes finally softened sadly. She had been holding it in, but when Coco had mentioned Gourmet Corp. and then especially Cedre, it had struck a nerve with her and had taken everything she had in her control to keep from showing any emotion that would give her away. Yes, the man had betrayed and lied to her, but it still didn't wipe away the memories she still held dear to her from before she had found out. Somewhere deep in the recesses of her mind,...Seika believed that Cedre had lied about the three years he had spent time with her before she found out the complete truth towards his profession; that he had just been using her.

"Cedre..."

_**{Gourmet Corp.}**_

Cedre sighed softly as he rested his cheek against his lightly fisted hand while his elbow was propped up on the table that he, the other Culinary Heads of the different banches, the vice chefs, and the head chef were seated at. They had been discussing their next move and also towards the problems that they were having with the Four Heavenly Kings. Personally, other than the fact that he wanted to beat that irritating pretty boy, Sunny into the ground for what had happened within the Regal Mammoth, his thoughts were elsewhere as he held a look of distant boredom on his features. That is...untill a certain subject caught his attention.

"What about that young chef?...Seika. She's already shown a great deal of skill in both cooking with food that deal with special handling and in fighting to the point where she's never even considered forming a combo with a gourmet hunter. In fact, I had heard rumors that Coco had tried and she turned him down. She even has an adolescant Sword Horn as her animal partner and its capture lvl is said to actually already be higher than those in the wild still."

Tensing up and dark eyes widening a fraction, he listened to their thoughts on Seika. There was no way...They couldn't possibly be considering in actually capturing and turning her, did they?

"The girl is very strong willed...Too much so in fact. If she causes any problems that keeps us from obtaining the things we want, then dispose of her."

"What about her pet?"

"...Kill it as well and bring its meat to be prepared for our boss..."

No way...What the fork? This was a lot worse that turning her. Head Chef, Kuromado actually told them to kill Seika if she got in their way?! Clenching his teeth slightly at his, he forced himself to remain calm so that he didn't give anything away. Yes, he was loyal to a fault to their boss and to Gourmet Corp. as a whole, but damn it, why Seika? The one weakness he had outside of his job and the Head Chef had given the ok to have that very weakness targeted to be killed if need be. He couldn't let that happen, but he also couldn't betray Gourmet Corp. either. She may hate him still, but...Cedre still actually cared a great deal about the younger girl. She had been the one girl that didn't see him as disgusting at knowing what his hobby was or treat him differently. She had actually thought he was nice and funny; that she enjoyed being around him...

How was he going to protect the only friend he truly had without being found out and classed as a traitor by the very people he work with and for? As he wondered about this, the thought of seeing Seika again soon caused his blood to rush and his heart to pick up in speed. He hadn't seen her since the day she ran away from him after he had said those horrible lies to her...He silently wondered how much she had grown since then...And if she'd ever forgive him for those heartless words.

God, he hoped so...

**End?**

_Little Tsu: Yay, a cliffhanger!/o/_

_I seem ta do that often now in a lot of my work. I'm so evil.x.x_


	2. Chapter 2

_Little Tsu: Uhhh...Nothin' ta really say 'cept decided ta continue this after all, but like others, it'll be slow goin' since I have so many that I'm still workin' on._

**Ch:2**

"So I heard you met with a certain chef a few months back Coco."

"Hm?" Coco brought his glass of Crystal Cola down from his lips and brought his dark gaze towards Toriko and Sunny. Toriko had been the one that spoke up after he had finished up his first glass of the cola and was giving him a slightly curious look. "Well, yes. She visited, but what brought this on all of a sudden?"

"Huh? Coco, what 'certain chef' is Toriko talking about?" Komatsu held a look of honest confusion within his gaze as he stared at the fortune telling Gourmet Hunter. Did the Four Heavenly Kings know another well known chef like Granny Setsuno?

Coco shook his head lightly before offering the small chef a kind smile. "Just a friend of mine that I came across a few years back. I'll tell you about her later, ok? Right now the Giga Horses are about to begin moving."

Komatsu blinked a few times as the words were registered, but then a bright smile of realization formed onto his features before he got up from his seat and rushed over to the window. It was then that he saw the massive Giga Horses that pulled the equally massive carriage on the World Connect. "Oh wow! This is the first time I've actually seen real Giga Horses! They're huge!" As the Giga Horses began to make their move down the tracks and pull the carriage along with them, Komatsu had been about to pull his head back inside when he spotted a flash of white at the front of the ship on the lowest of the decks. "Hm? What was that?"

"What was what Komatsu? What are you doing with your head still sticking out of the window?"

He pulled his head back in and turned to look behind himself at his three friends before giving them a slightly dumbfounded look. "Um...I thought I saw something furry and white on the deck...Are animals allowed to board the carriage too?"

"Nope. Not that I'm aware of." Toriko had been about to say something else, but halted suddenly when as he caught scent of something and it wasn't coming from all the different foods either. "This scent..." Rising up out of his seat suddenly, he quickly strided towards the front of the carriage to step outside. Of course the others had quickly followed when he ignored them calling out his name in a questioning manner. Making it to the doors, Toriko pushed them open hurriedly, but he got no more than a step or two outside onto the deck when he suddenly found himself gazing up at the snow white furred reindeer of Death Season Forest, the Sword Horn. "What the-? Wait...Ace?!"

"Torikooo! Why'd you walk away like tha-? Holy-! That's a Sword Horn! What's that doing on the Luxury Carriage?!" Leave it to Komatsu to flip out at the sight of a dangerous monster.

"Toriko, your companion is too loud. Quiet him down before I let him become a snack for Ace..." Stepping out from behind the young Sword Horn that was currently laying on the grassy ground was none other than the very girl that had visited Coco upon his request a few months back. "So long as you don' give him a reason ta, Ace won' attack..." Lifting her hand up, she rested her palm against her partner's muzzle as she petted him gently when he had lowered his head faintly to allow her easier reach.

As this went on, Coco had stepped forward to speak out, wondering what she was doing here on board, but before he could get even her name out, the chef with them spoke out in both shock and excitement.

"Y-You're Seika! You're the famous Wandering Chef that deals in mainly foods that need special preparation and even rumored to handle foods from the Gourmet World!" Komatsu then actually hurried over to close the distance dispite the snort and warning look that the beast next to her was giving him. "This is such an honor. I mean, you're one of the youngest chefs ever to become known around the world and also make it into the top 100!" Komatsu then glanced around as if he was trying to find someone or something before bringing his gaze back onto the dumbfounded looking younger chef before him. "Where's the Gourmet Hunter that you formed a combo with? I mean, with someone as amazing as you, you must have gotten plenty of offers, right?"

"She doesn't have a combo with anyone Komatsu and I'd step away from her if I were you. You're crowding her and Ace is starting to look extra defensive now."

"Huh? But Toriko-?" Before he could say anything further to his friend, Toriko quickly rushed over and pulled him out of the way just in time as the young Sword Horn released a frosty breath that froze over everything that it touched, though it was only a light breath so it went a mere eight feet at the most in distance.

Sighing softly as this happened, Coco tilted his head down a bit as he shook it. "Why don't you guys head back inside? I'll remain out here and speak with Seika for a bit..."

Komatsu had tried to protest, but both Toriko and Sunny had ushered him away as they all went back inside. Once there, the chef finally spoke out in confusion. "I don't get it. Why isn't she in a combo with anyone and why did Coco stay out there? Does he know her personally?"

"Komatsu, Seika's a bit of a loner when it comes to being around people. She'd rather have the company of animals." Sighing softly, Toriko supposed that he might as well fill his little combo partner in on the details. At least a bit. "I'm not exactly sure on what happened, in fact, knowone does except for Seika, but Coco found her about three years back and she was in pretty rough state. Apparently something happened to her and as a result she keeps a distance from people anything beyond client and chef."

"So then...what's Coco if Seika keeps her distance from others relationship wise beyond client and chef?"

"Coco is the one person that we are aware of that successfully pushed his way through her barriers Matsu." Sunny then rested a hand onto his waist as he gazed behind Komatsu at the doors. "It took him quite some time to do so too from what he told us. He's even tried to form a combo with her..."

"What?! Coco tried to make a combo with Seika?! Then why did you say-?!"

"She declined."

"Huh?"

"She declined his offer. Don't get me wrong Komatsu. Coco still definately wants to form that combo with her, but Seika refuses to budge. She's a stubborn chef, I'll give her that. Then again, it's not like she needs the protection. Seika's one skilled fighter and she has gourmet cells within her too. She even has that young Sword Horn as her partner animal." Toriko then glanced down at Komatsu and grinned. "That little guy isn't even full grown yet and his capture level is immeasurable. The IGO are saying that it could be over 100 already despite his kind being a capture level 70 as adults. We're guessing that she infused gourmet cells into him soon after she found him as a baby that was abandoned by his pack. That way, he could adapt to any environment that isn't the snowy tundra and also grow far stronger than the rest of his kind in order to stand a chance against monsters in the Gourmet World..."

Komatsu was stunned into silence as he soaked in all the information he was given. He couldn't believe the things he was told, but then again, he was friends with three of the Heavenly Kings and even a **combo** with Toriko! At this point, he really shouldn't be so surprised about the added information he learned on Seika and her partner animal.

_**{Back outside}**_

"So that's why you're here...The IGO actually sent you to aide Toriko on his hunt? Because of how you deal with special preperation foods of all kinds?"

Seika nodded her head lightly, but then glanced off to the side in thought for a moment. "It was conveniant for me. My current client is requestin' Mellow Cola. I'm bein' paid 20 million yen for five liters of the cola..." She then glanced to Coco and actually smirked faintly at the expression upon his features. "Not exactly an price I can say 'no' ta. Normally the price of that much of the cola would be around 17.1 mil. The fact that he's givin' me pretty much three million extra cause of who I am is a nice bonus since I don' come cheaply."

Listening to her explain what was going on, Coco nodded his head lightly in understanding. However, at the same time, he couldn't help but be a bit worried...Or rather nervous actually. After all, Toriko wasn't heading straight for the Gourmet Pyramid and Seika was informed to aide him and Komatsu as part of her side job from another 'client'. Instead, their first stop was at the Gates of the Underworld, which would lead them to Honey Prison where they were to pick up Zebra and be released from prison. It was because of Zebra and their own reasons for being on this cruise that both he and Sunny had quickly declined Toriko to join him...Not that anyone could really blame them... "Well, I wish you luck then."

Seika had been about to speak and tell him that she didn't need any luck, but then the voice over the intercom spoke up, telling them that they were coming up onto the Gates of the Underworld now along with proceeding to explain that they were safe with the Giga Horses, but that beyond the gates there were monsters that would attack even them so they wouldn't be staying there long. Sighing softly to herself, the young chef patted her Sword Horn on the side of his neck before heading over to the railing on the side of the Luxury Carriage that would be closest to the gates since Ace had her bag hanging around his fluffy neck by a chain much like a collar in a sense. Ace rose up steadily onto his cloven paws as she did so and followed after her.

When they halted at the railing, Seika leaped up onto it before bounding up onto her partner's back as she took a seat just behind his shoulders. Once comfortable, she spied that Toriko and Komatsu were already almost down the ramp to get off. Bringing her gaze behind her, she nodded her head lightly towards Coco. "I wish both you and Sunny luck on your own quests."

"Seika! About our last meeting...I'm sorry if I had upset or offended you in any way."

The young chef remained silent as she just stared at him for a moment, but then turned her gaze away from him as she spoke calmly. "...Don' worry about it. You didn' offend me Coco..." Without another word, Ace leaped over the side of the massive carriage, only to land far down below. Trotting a bit as he gained his complete balance back from the steep drop, he came to a halt in front of Toriko and Komatsu as both he and his human glanced down at them. "We're comin' with you on your quest ta aquire the Mellow Cola. The IGO requested I join you and that suited me just fine since I also had gotten a client ta gather up some of the cola for him."

"Really? Great! The more the merrier!" Toriko definately seemed pleased over this. Partly cause now he'd have another to help him deal with the 'problem child' of the Four Heavenly Kings. "Well, lets get moving. I'm sure that Zebra's already aware that we're here." Grinning as he said this, the Gourmet Hunter hefted up his bag over his shoulder and began his trek as he stepped through the opening Gates of the Underworld with Komatsu running after him to stick close and Seika covering the rear while still on Ace's back.

_**{Gourmet Corp.}**_

"It looks like Toriko of the Four Kings is heading to have Zebra the last of the Four released from Honey Prison. Do we have any insight on where he plans to go? What his reasons are for the release of the criminal, Zebra?"

Glancing to Starjun, Culinary Head of Branch 2, Yuu nodded his head lightly. "Yes. It would seem that they are preparing for the journey to Sand Garden. I believe that Toriko's target destination is to be the Gourmet Pyramid. However, sources have informed me that there's a chance that Special Prep Wandering Chef Seika is going to be traveling with them on this quest as well..."

Eyes widening a fraction, Cedre suddenly listened in on the information that was being given and turned his head towards Yuu as he raised it off his scarred hand and brought said hand to rest upon the table. "What the hell is Seika doing with Toriko and Zebra? She works alone save for that partner animal of hers."

Yuu drifted his pupilless gaze onto Cedre as he spoke and just stared at him silently for a moment before speaking up once again. "It could be that she was requested by the IGO since despite being a wandering chef, she **does** still work for that company...Though she could possibly have a client that is wanting something from there...There's speculation that the Mellow Cola is almost ready..."

"I see...Mellow Cola and every other ingrediant within the Gourmet Pyramid require special preparation...If Seika is accompanying them, they will beable to aquire the cola should they even beable to defeat the beast that possesses it..." Starjun then closed his eyes gently and thought on this for a moment on how they should go about it.

Hesitating a second, the Culinary Head of Branch 6 finally spoke again, though he did his best not to give anything away on what he was really feeling about this. "So what do we do then Starjun? You gonna send someone out after them?"

"...No...Taking on one of the Four Kings is a challenge. Taking on two at once along with Seika and that Sword Horn of hers would be too much for most of the members of Gourmet Corp. to handle currently...Let them be for now. We will strike when the time is right." Starjun then rose up from his seat at the table and headed out. "Continue your business as per usual."

Watching the Vice-Chef leave, Cedre remained put for a bit longer before rising out of his seat as well. "I'm heading back out then. After all, I've got some ingrediants to collect up for the boss so your stupid Prep Team can get the food ready for him. Last thing I need is anymore punishment to endure like last time."

"Now whose fault was that, I wonder? Your Provisions Team are the ones that failed to aquire the Jewel Meat."

Cedre clenched his teeth at this, but kept his back to Bogie even though he still snapped at him like the last time he had brought up that incident. "You failed too, you freak! In getting the Century Soup! And you had even had Vice-Chef Tommyrod with you! So shut your trap!" With that, the scarred chef stormed out of the dining room that the Culinary Heads, Vice-Chefs, and the Head Chef usually held their meetings while they ate. As he stalked heatedly through the halls though towards the exit of the main headquarters for Gourmet Corp., Cedre's mind seemed to wander back to what all Yuu had informed them of. Biting his bottom lip slightly, he finally decided on what to do. He didn't care if those annoyances Toriko and Zebra would be there nor did he care about the possible risk he was taking in getting found out by any of the members of Gourmet Corp..

Cedre was going after Seika to see her again...

**To be continued.**

_Little Tsu: Ok so that's that...Till next time. Also, question for the readers. Do you think that one of Seika's rare friendships will go beyond that? And if so, who d'ya think it'll be?_


	3. Chapter 3

_Little Tsu: I know I'm all over the place with my stories &amp; takin' it slow with most,(please don' hurt me for that) but I kinda wanna go ahead &amp; get this next chap of my Toriko story up already &amp; MAYBE the 4th one too. Not jus' for the readers, but also for my main reviewer for this story, Silver. Hopefully they become a fan of all my work &amp; can depend on their input. I don' get too many on my stories, but reviews really help ta encourage me that people like my work..._

_Anyways, this is for you Sil._

**Ch:3**

The prison was in all honesty not at all what Komatsu had imagined at first. Not only did it **look** cute, but it even had a cute name; Honey Prison. In all outward aspects to him, it certainly didn't seem like the deadly prison to him.

Well,...that is till a terrifying man covered in stitches appeared to greet them. Then he immediately took back the 'cute' comment and automatically changed it to 'scary'.

As they walked over to the man while Toriko dragged the beasts he had taken out along the way to the prison for Zebra, the ground around them shifted before beginning to lower them down like an elevator. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Vice-Warden here. Oban. I will be the one showing you around Honey Prison." After he introduced himself, he began explaining thing about the three largest of the Gourmet Prison; Sky Prison, Prison Submarine, and then finally the largest of the land, sea, and air facilities, Honey Prison. "We've arrived. This is Honey Prison's lobby."

Komatsu went to glance out at the see through tube they were in and immediately freaked out when he saw a huge eye staring right back at him. "Gyaaah! Toriko, monsters!"

Toriko chuckled lightly and took a good look around him at all the beasts that were within the lobby. "There sure are a lot of different execution beasts here."

"Yes, Warden Love tamed them. Most convicts that managed to escape usually give up by the time they reach the lobby."

"This warden must be quite the character then, huh?"

As they reached the bottom, they all stepped out and Seika sighed softly as she leaped down off of her Sword Horn's back. Patting him gently on the leg, she had him follow her as they stayed with the group. After all, they had been instructed to aide Toriko. "I wouldn' exactly say Warden Love's 'quite the character' Toriko...More like...strange."

"Huh? So you know the warden here, do you Seika?"

Oban chuckled lightly and side glanced towards Toriko while his head was tilted down slightly and his hands resting loosely against his lower back. "You could say we've aquired her skills a few times. She may indeed be a remarkable chef, but she and her pet, Ace are also very skills in battle. Ace is quite the tracker actually and from there, they've captured a few of the inmates that are currently in our possession. In other words, she will do anything for the right price so long as it is not illegal. Seika prefers to work for the IGO and honest clients."

Komatsu blinked slightly at hearing this and glanced up at the Vice-Warden in confusion. "Um...this might sound like a stupid question, but how can she tell between honest clients and shifty ones? Rich people that are dirty."

"I have a good memory..."

"Huh?"

Seika drifted her gaze towards Komatsu calmly and sighed softly before she explained. "You are aware of Gourmet Cells and that there are a number of people that possess them, right?" When she saw the older chef nod his head and continued. "Well, as you probably know thanks ta Toriko's big mouth..." She promptly shot his an accusing look at this point, which he glanced away guiltily while scratching his temple with a finger at being caught. "I have Gourmet Cells within myself too. While the cells increase our fighting capabilities and enable us ta adapt ta each environment the more rare and compatible foods we eat, they also increase certain things that are unique ta each of us. In Toriko's case, it's smell. With Coco, sight, Sunny, touch with the sensors in his hair. Zebra, you'll find out soon with him. In my case though, it's based on memory. Anyone I see, I remember every detail of them, even if they were ta get plastic surgery, I'd beable ta spot them instantly anywhere. The memorizing goes for anything else as well. It's how I'm able ta deal so well with foods that need special preparation. I study each creature and plant that I come across and my memory finds the correct way ta prep said food..."

Komatsu stared slightly in awe of this and he couldn't help but find himself admiring the girl before him even more. After all, he'd love to beable to handle such rare foods that she had handled so effortlessly. He hoped that he'd beable to learn a few things from her during this quest and that she would be instructed by the IGO or asked by any of the Four Kings to assist on any other missions or quests.

"Here we are. This is the Warden's office." Oban then glanced behind himself at the trio while standing in front of a huge door.

Toriko gapped at the size of the door as his eyes widened. "It's huge! Is the Warden a giant like Melk?!"

"How rude! How dare you equate me to like Melk. I take offense to that." Stepping out of the office as the door opened was the very small Warden herself, Love as she gave them an irritated glare for the apparent insult to her appearance. Giving them a once over, she huffed and ushered them inside her office. Luckily her doors were large enough that the Sword Horn was able to fit inside, though he did have to shift his head a bit so that his horns slipped on through. Walking over to her large, plush chair, Love hopped herself into it as she got comfortable while the rest stood before her. "Welcome to Honey Prison. I'm the Warden here."

"Wh-What?! But you look like a kid!"

"How rude! I'm not a child!" Love shot another glare at Komatsu's outburst, but then smiled as she watched Toriko begin to blush and tremble; even going so far as to call her a 'babe', which apparently confused Kotmatsu as he promptly asked what was wrong with him.

"Komatsu, you idiot. Can't you see? Just look!"

When Komatsu became even more confused at what Toriko was obviously seeing that he wasn't, he turned his gaze back to the Warden to see what was going on. When he did though, he suddenly blushed as his eyes widened at the sight of Love suddenly looking like an incredibly attractive woman with a luscious figure. "Whatta babe! How did this happen?!"

Both Oban and Seika sighed lightly to themselves as this was going on before giving the Warden an exasperated look and the male of the two speaking. "Warden Love. I think that's enough."

"Oh alright. These two are too easy just like everyone else, but..." She then clapped her hands, causing both Toriko and Komatsu to snap out of it. "neither of you are my type."

Toriko blinked slightly in surprise at what had just happened and stared at the woman in shock as he tried to figure out what had caused her to look so different like that. It couldn't have been an illusion so just what was that...? "Huh? I smell...Don't tell me...those were pheromones."

"Well, well. I'm impressed. I thought you'd notice, Toriko. but yes, indeed. I used sex pheromones to be more precise."

As she went more into depth on it, Seika sighed again and glanced off to the side. She really didn't care to listen to her explaination towards the chemical. Even just once was too many times for her to hear; now she was hearing it yet again. She was only snapped back into paying attention to those around her when Warden Love began to whine and complain about how there was one that was completely immune to her and that it was the very man she was practically infatuated with. Rolling her eyes at this, she gave Oban a slightly tired look. "Can't you make her shut up?"

"I'm afraid she opposed Zebra's release because she doesn't wish to let her crush go..."

While both Toriko and Komatsu were shocked by this, Seika merely facepalmed. It was like dealing with children now. Unbelievable. "Just take us to where he's bein' kept before I file a complaint ta the old man." Of course she meant the president of the IGO. She knew him well enough personally that she was able to get away with that much like how Toriko was able to. When the Warden complied and began to lead the group to where Zebra was being held, the execution grounds. Of course when Komatsu had asked what Zebra could've possibly done to be put here, Seika drifted her gaze onto the other chef, but remained silent as someone else explained, though they didn't explain all **that** well.

"This is where Zebra is."

Toriko went to one of the opened gaps in the stone wall that acted as like a window and smiled excitedly. "Hey Zebra! We've come to get you!" It was soon after he said this despite Zebra's silence, that the blue haired Gourmet Hunter suddenly picked up on something. That was when one of the execution beasts cried out and all the ones that were chained up to pull the chains attached to Zebra's limbs began to move.

"They're going to pull the chains! Get away!"

The chains then got pulled to yank off Zebra's limbs, only to suddenly get yanked tight. The beasts jolted as they were suddenly stopped and all cried out in surprise by this. Zebra was now standing in the center of the room as his muscles flexed at having been the one that was keeping the beasts from going any further in this game of 'tug-of-war'._ 'Lets play one last game...before I say goodbye.'_ Zebra then slowly took in a deep breath, which instantly alarmed Toriko as he knew exactly what he was about to do.

"Komatsu, get down! Cover your ears!" Right as he said this, the blast was released, bringing down the execution beasts as they foamed at the mouth and collapsed. The chains even broke away from Zebra and the walls and ceiling cracked and crumbled. "Urk! That...idiot!" Growling in frustration, Toriko popped his head out of the window as he glared annoyedly down at Zebra. "Hey Zebra! You trying to kill us?!"

"Hahaha! How'd you like that Toriko?!" Zebra then glanced up at the other man and gave him a sly grin. "Did my voice wake you up? That dumb look on your face tells me...the world's gotten pretty dull while I've been away!"

"Yeah right!"

As they all went to the dining room, both Komatsu and Seika got around to fixing up as much food as they could possibly fit onto the massive table. However, when they finished getting the food set out, Komatsu noticed that someone was missing. "Um...where's Zebra? Anybody know?"

"He's busy paying a visit to his fellow inmates."

Komatsu blinked slightly in confusion on this before smiling happily. "To say goodbye I bet, right?! Because his fellow inmates took such good care of him!"

"Nope." Toriko then chuckled softly as he closed his eyes gently after taking another drink of his booze. "He went to kill them. They kept whispering bad things about him."

Seika spied the dumbfounded look on Komatsu's features and rolled her eyes before she spoke up. "That's where Zebra's own uniqueness comes in. His hearing is sharper than the sharpest knife. Unfortunately, out of the Four Kings, he's also got the shortest fuse." Of course, it was right after she said this, that Zebra finally decided to show up...And covered in blood too no less, which caused Komatsu to quickly freak out.

"It's not **my** blood so pipe down little guy." Of course that only made Komatsu flip out even more.

Toriko saw this and got up as he walked over to them. "Hey. Don't you dare lay a finger on my partner, you delinquent."

Unfortunately, that was when an argument between the two erupted as they got right into each other's faces. They were definately acting like bickering brothers. However, it was when it looked like a fight was about to break out, that Seika finally stepped in. "Will you both cut it out? You're being loud...Now clean yourself up Zebra. I refuse ta let you sit down to eat while you're filthy."

That instantly stopped the arguing between the two, but that also caused Zebra to turn his attention onto the female chef. "Who are you trying to order around kid? Don't get cocky with me."

Seika merely rested her hands onto her hips as Zebra stalked closer to her and looked up quite the distance. After all, she stood only at five feet, same height as Komatsu, while Zebra stood at a towering eight foot three! Still though, the young girl wasn't the least bit intimidated as she locked her magenta gaze with his own dark one without any fear. "If you'd rather I **make** you, that could be arranged. Now stop with the macho crap and go get cleaned up before the food starts ta get cold. You're startin' ta smell wrank." With that, Seika turned away and walked off to fix up a nice meal for her Sword Horn, who was laying on the floor in the slight distance and watching the whole thing carefully.

"Hahaha! Man, Seika sure told you Zebra. But she's right. Lets stop with the fighting and enjoy the food, kay?"

"Hunh? Well, I guess so..." After Zebra got himself clean of all the blood from himself, he took a seat at the table with the others and began to eat. Despite the amount of food that had been made, it didn't take long at all before every bit of it was devoured and Toriko began explaining things to Zebra about the request that Ichiryu had given to him. Of course that didn't stop Zebra from suddenly changing the subject to what all had been cooked earlier as he asked Komatsu if he had fixed everything they had just eaten, though in the end, he ended up scaring Komatsu with his talk of how he hates guys who are cocky.

"Zebra, you're gonna traumatize the poor guy. Knock it off already you hulking wall of muscle."

"What was that?" Glancing over at the one who spoke, he shot a dangerous glare towards Seika, who merely gave him a pointed look right back. He really didn't like this girl's cocky attitude, but then again, he couldn't really threaten to crush her skull in. Cocky girls were entirely different from guys that were cocky and plus, this one wasn't the slightest bit intimidated by him.

"I didn' stutter Zebra...Can we just finish up here and get a move on? Seriously here people, we're on a tight schedule or did you forget that Mellow Cola isn' a year round ready ingrediant?"

Toriko watched as Seika walked over to Ace so she could get her Sword Horn ready to leave. While Komatsu seemed surprised by her impatiance and Zebra actually looked a bit confused by her fearless attitude towards ordering him around, he merely laughed as he found this all amusing. Toriko really did enjoy the reactions people had towards the girl that weren't used to and knew her personally. However, they all decided it was best that they get their things gathered up and get moving to continue their way to the Sand Kingdom.

After all,...they had the delicous Mellow Cola just waiting for them to get ahold of...

**To be continued.**

_Little Tsu: Ugh...Have a headache...Still managed ta get this typed up though so yayyy...x.x_


	4. Chapter 4

_Little Tsu: Ok so last time, Toriko, Komatsu, &amp; Seika ended up goin' ta Honey Prison so that Zebra could be released. As a result, well,...there's bound ta be quite the bit of chaos within the group. In some of the chapters, I'll be following the storyline ta keep it on track, but at the same time, I'll be addin' quite a bit of my own personal touch._

_Now...As for Seika's animal partner. I'm sure some readers have been curious about her partner still despite the bit of info I ended up putting here &amp; there in the chaps so far. Sword Horn are a beast mammal in the appearance of a giant reindeer that lives within Death Season Forest and mainly comes out durin' the "Calm" of the Freeze Season. They are the second strongest in that area only ta the Magma Tortoise &amp; even then that beast knows not ta cross a Sword Horn. They have large cloven hooves, pupil-less blue eyes, sharp teeth, a large black nose, &amp; most notably their massive antlers which are made out of an unknown metallic material that appears to be extremely durable and incredibly sharp, making them resemble swords, hence the name 'Sword Horn'. They're extremely powerful and able to breath icy breath ta freeze anythin' in its path along with release razor sharp shards from their antlers much like one would do with throwin' weapons. They're a creature that doesn' appear in the manga &amp; only in the anime, so their actual SIZE isn't ever given. However, judging from estimates in comparison ta the Heavenly Kings, a full grown Sword Horn is possibly around 12-14meters in height from hooves to the tips of their anters and possibly around 8meters or so in length._

_With Ace not being quite full grown yet, he's about around 8-10meters in height with his horns also not done growin'. Despite the thick white fur coat that his kind have ta suit their snowy environment, since Ace travels all over the Human &amp; Gourmet Worlds with Seika &amp; has Gourmet Cells within him, he's able to adapt to every environment so that hot even intense heat bothers him with his thick coat as he'll simply use his power over ice to keep his body temperature cooled._

_Anyways, that's that. Hope that clears up all the info anyone was curious about towards Ace &amp; his kind if ya'll didn' look up Sword Horn on wiki._

**Ch:4**

**SAND GARDEN**

The largest desert in the Human World, it spans 39 million square kilometers.

It is the home of Rice Desert, a desert made of rice as well as Black Sugar Desert and other gourmet deserts made of sugar granules. Besides these are resource deserts made of coal and rare metals, and jewel deserts made of gold dust and diamonds. It's a sand paradise!

They moment they stepped out of the now internally totaled Lift House that they had rented in their ride over to Sand Garden, Komatsu collapsed onto his hands and knees as he silently thanked any food gods that were listening that he had made it out of that alive. _'The house we had rented was one of the more expensive and nice homes...And Toriko and Zebra completely destroyed the inside of it with their constant fighting!'_ Sighing softly in dismay of this, he rose himself back up onto his feet and brushed the sand off of the desert clothes that they had bought for the trip. It was only when he spotted Zebra up ahead, practically harrassing one of the locals, that he sweatdropped. "Toriko, are you sure that we're going to be ok with Zebra?"

"Hm...Well, he is a genuine criminal. Haha! But I wouldn't be too worried Komatsu even though we can't exactly trust that he'll help us out."

"Toriko, you're taking this a little too easily." Sighing softly at how lightly his friend was taking all this, he tilted his head down to stare at the ground. "It's not so much as trust, but...he still commited a serious crime and I...just can't see him as being even the slightest bit sorry for what he did."

"Haha, I agree Komatsu! However, we're gonna need his strength once we make it to the Gourmet Pyramid." He then glanced down at his partner and smiled encouragingly. "Besides, Zebra's impact on the world...hasn't been all negative. You'll understand soon enough." With that, Toriko headed off to continue of their journey with Seika and Ace right behind him, leaving Komatsu to chase after them while he seemed obviously confused as to just how Zebra's criminal actions hadn't been all negative when he had wiped out entire species!

When Toriko had spoken about Komatsu finding out what he meant soon enough, he hadn't realized that he'd be witnessing something like this later when they had all gone to rent some camels. The male chef stood there by Toriko as they both watched Zebra getting swarmed by people that lived within a village that had been ravaged and caught in the crosshairs of a terrible war up until recently. The sight before him honestly dumbfounded him as he didn't understand what was going on. After all, he thought most people would be afraid of Zebra.

"Zebra is both a blessing and a curse..."

"Huh?" Komatsu glanced over at Seika as she said this and knitted his brows slightly in honest confusion. Just what did she mean by that? As if answering his silent question, Toriko filled in what Seika had started on.

"You know how that woman explained that this village had gotten caught in the crossfires of a huge war? Well, Zebra's release put a stop to the endless war...and caused the countries to form alliances in order to go against him."

The old woman smiled sadly as she teared up before holding her hands together in front of herself in a prayer fashion. "We had lost tens of thousands of people, both young and old, to that terrible war...It's all thanks to that one man that we are finally free from it."

Komatsu stared in slight awe at hearing all of this before drifting his gaze back onto Zebra, who was actually freaking out a bit and yelling at the people that were swarming him so much. Apparently, he wasn't used to this kind of attention and he was obviously a little uncomfortable by it. In fact, it was only when a monster came charging towards them, that the people finally scattered and began to run for their lives. "Wh-What is that?!"

"It's an Eight-Tailed Scorpion! The venom in its stingers can kill any living thing and can wreck havoc on an ecosystem! It's a designated isolated specimen and a level-2 dangerous creature, ah!" Toriko's eyes widened as he saw a child that had been trying to run away fall to the ground. Narrowing his eyes, he went to hurry over and save them, but halted suddenly when Zebra beat him to it.

Bending his torso over the child to act as like a shield when the monster lashed out for the kill with one of his stingers, the beast was suddenly sliced into pieces as Zebra countered with _Voice Cutter_. Straightening himself up as the slaughtered Eight-Tailed Scorpion hit the ground, he glanced over at the people that were cheering and held his hand out towards them in a 'gun' style manner. "Third-rate creatures...shouldn't go getting full of themselves. All of you better...adapt to me."

"The twenty-six species that Zebra's eaten into exinction...have all been dangerous animals that posed a threat to the ecosystems." Toriko then glanced down at Komatsu and flashed an amused grin. "Then again, that doesn't exactly make it ok to wipe them out, haha!"

Komatsu merely just stood there as he seemed in slight awe over not just everything he had witnessed, but also everything he had been told. Maybe Zebra wasn't as bad as he had initially thought after all!

...Of course that still didn't stop him from getting intimidated over Zebra yelling at him for getting cocky earlier.

Luckily, he didn't get his head crushed in, but he still ended up getting confused when Zebra suddenly started laughing at the situation. In fact, when the larger of the Heavenly Kings mentioned about how he still hadn't decided what his compensation will be, that only seemed to further confused Komatsu. He didn't have time to ask what he meant by that though as Toriko called out to them, saying they had to get moving and that they were given camels to ride through the desert on in order to get to their destination.

_**{Next Day}**_

"How the hell did we get into this mess?! Zebra, I blame you!"

"Me?! Why me?! I didn't do anything!"

"Well, I gotta blame someone and I'm not about to blame me!"

Seika sighed softly at the bickering that was going back and forth between the two Grourmet Hunters. They were currently in the Desert Labyrinth and had only hours earlier not only lost their two camels to the intense heat, but they had somehow lost Komatsu as well as he had been swallowed up by the quick sand. Now here they were, dealing with monsters in this intense heat on foot along with a mirage while Zebra was trying to focus on keeping track of Komatsu's location and see through the mirage through his skill, _Echo Map_. Not an easy thing to manage in keeping up when it drained a lot of calories to do so. As they were continuing on their way through the Desert Labyrinth to get to their destination while hoping that Komatsu would somehow end up there too, the young chef that was still with the hunters finally sighed and spoke up. "Will you two just shut up and give it a rest? It's neither of your faults that Komatsu is currently swimmin' in the bloody ground. Now both of you stop your pointless bickerin' and get ta the Gourmet Pyramid."

At being told this, both Toriko and Zebra halted in both their strides and their bickering as they glanced behind themselves as Seika, who was actually on foot since they had lost their camels, though she still had Ace right with them. Both looked like they wanted to say something in response, but the currently irritated look that was daring them to talk back to her actually made them rethink that. Deciding to shut up for now, they continued their trek.

After a while longer of traveling through the intense heat of the desert, Zebra came to a halt at the top of a hill just ahead of the others and smirked slightly. "Earlier you said that getting caught in the quick sand was a lucky break for your friend. Well, you might be right about the "luck" part. It's like the little guy was headed for our destination the whole time...Does he have a knack for attracting food or something?"

Confused, Toriko gave him a dumbfounded look as he halted in his footsteps. "Huh? What are you talking about Zebra?"

Seika shook her head as she made it to the top with Ace and gazed at what was ahead of them. "See for yourself Toriko...This whole time **we** thought that we were searchin' for Komatsu,...but **it** was searchin' for **him**..." She then pointed up ahead as she turned her gaze towards Toriko, who picked up his pace again to see what his companions meant.

When he made it to the top of the hill, Toriko's eyes widened in surprise as he gazed in shock at the sight before him. "Is that...? It's the Gourmet Pyramid! It's huge!"

"Actually, you don't know the half of it...This is only the tip."

Glancing over at Zebra, the blue haired hunter seemed surprised by what he said. "Just the tip?!"

The young chef with them rolled her eyes slightly at Toriko's shock, but then again, she guessed that she couldn't blame the guy. It **did** give off the impression of only what they were seeing, but she remembered reading an archeology book on ancient gourmet structures and items. One of the subjects had been of the 'Gourmet Pyramid' and had showed a sketch of it from before the desert swallowed most of it up. It was more like an enormous palace or castle than anything else. Either way, they had a lot of traversing through this place ahead of themselves if they were gonna find Komatsu.

As the four of them made their way into the Gourmet Pyramid, the three that were human all silently hoped that Komatsu would somehow manage to stay alive until they found him.

_**{Back outside of the Gourmet Pyramid}**_

A cloaked figure stood there gazing upon the structure before them. Lifting their hands to the hood, they pushed it off their head, revealing themselves to be Cedre. The bandages were no longer upon his face nor torso so his scars were now in full, complete view. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he tried to sense out how far into the pyramid the group had gotten already, but eventually gave up and made his way to the base of it that was actually above the desert sand. "Can't tell where they are in this damn place yet, but I'll find them soon enough...If those two stupid Heavenly Kings get in my way though, I might be in for a rough time. Tch...What a pain in my ass. Seika better listen to what I gotta say and also forgive me so this'll have at least been a worthwhile hassle."

Though he would probably never admit it out loud, Cedre knew that the moment he finally saw Seika again after three long years, that even if she didn't forgive him, this trip would've been worth all the trouble to him...

**To be continued.**

_Little Tsu: The group has finally made it ta their destination, but the trials aren' over yet! Now they must make their way through the maze-like structure that is Gourmet Pyramid &amp; face all the powerful beasts that cross their paths in search of not only the Mellow Cola, but also their lost friend, Komatsu. What they don't know yet though, is that Cedre is hot on their tails &amp; he'll stop at nothin' till he gets what he wants._

_PS: Sorry for the shorter chap this time._


	5. Chapter 5

**Ch: 5**

"This is all your fault you know."

"Now where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, that's right. You said that out in the Desert Labyrinth." Leaping back as he avoided the thrusting horn of the capture level 63 Unicorn Cerberus that they were currently fighting, Zebra was struggling to keep his Echo Map up, fight, and talk at the same time, but his energy was nearly depleted now. He knew that he was about to lose the map, thus lose Komatsu's location and on top of that, lose his voice for a while till he could get his calories back up to nearly full.

"Well, who else am I supposed to blame?! Seika and Ace fell down that crater that was caused earlier in this place right from under their feet!" Toriko quickly used his Fork Shield to deflect the blow of another horn before releasing a Spike Punch into the face of one of the heads; taking at least that head down, though he used a Leg Fork to take a second head down as well.

"And how is that **my** fault exactly?"

"I don't know...It just is!" The third head went to strike Toriko from behind, thus taking him by surprise, but instead, the best ended up attacking Zebra instead as the larger of the Four Kings got in the way and took the attack for him. "Zebra?!"

Unable to speak anymore, Zebra's inner demon reared its ugly head and lashed out as he threw two hard punches into the final head. Reaching out while the head was bashed up badly and disoriented, Zebra quickly took a firm grasp onto the Unicorn Cerberus and tossed it as he sent the beast flying and smashing into the ground heads first; killing the beast. With monster strength like his, he didn't even need his sound attacks to finish the opponent. However, once he was sure the Unicorn Cerberus was dead, he lifted his desert cape and brushed his finger along his bloody arm before writing a message in his own blood on the inside of the cape.

_`Closed map. Lost little guy.`_

Needless to say, that actually worried Toriko quite a bit as his eyes widened. "You what?! How are we supposed to find Komatsu now?!"

Zebra merely shook his head as he couldn't speak any longer till his calories were saved up enough again. He then walked over to the fallen beast so that he and Toriko could eat and try to gain back some of the energy they had lost since starting this journey.

**{Meanwhile}**

Seika sighed as she wiped her Melk Blade clean of the blood before slipping it carefully once again in the sheath that she safely kept it in that was attached to her left thigh when not in use. Drifting her gaze over towards the killed capture level 35 Tiger Fang, she lifted a hand and motioned for her Sword Horn to wait a bit. Taking in a steady breath, she studied the prone form of the beast before them as her magenta eyes actually began to aquire a glow to them; her pupils constricting in the process. "Hn...I see. So that's how you wish ta be prepped...Thanks for showin' me." Calmly stepping towards the Tiger Fang, she pulled her blade out once more and began the special preparation.

As a chef, it was her job to learn the many foods of the known world and, even moreso, learn how to properly prep each and every one of them. It was thanks to the Gourmet Cells that flowed within her, that she was not only just as skilled as any fine hunter, this including her being on near equal footing with those of the Four Heavenly Kings, but also gave her a heightened sense in which Seika was able to not just hear the voices of the food like only the most skilled chefs were able to, but also actually **see** how each ingrediant that needed special handling wished to be prepped. Even the ingrediants she had never once handled, seen, nor even **heard** of before elluded her sense. Her memory was the best in history.

As the teen completed with the preparation of the meal, she drifted her gaze towards her dearest partner, who had been waiting patiantly for her to be finished, and nodded her head. "The food is done. Come and get your share Ace." With a gentle smile, she watched as her young Sword Horn came over and layed himself down near his much larger portion of the beast; his fangs delving into the prepared meat with as much fervor as any animal would as if they were starving. Chuckling softly as she watched her dearest companion enjoy his meal for a moment longer, she tilted her head down and began to enjoy her own portion. After all, they both needed to keep up their strength if they were going to not only make it through the Gourmet Pyramid, but also find their companions. As she ate though, Seika silently wondered how the others were doing. She knew that she possibly had to worry over the safety of Komatsu since he wasn't like herself and he was also on his own with these beasts. Toriko and Zebra, she didn't really need to worry towards them at least being able to defend themselves against the high level beasts.

No...

Her worry towards **those** two Kings were more towards the ingrediants they ate since all the animals here needed special handling and she doubted they knew how to prep most, in not **any**, of the ingrediants in the Pyramid.

With that thought in mind, Seika sweatdropped slightly before closing her eyes gently as she sighed once again; her head bowing slightly in defeat. "Why did I have ta become seperated from those two? They're completely hopeless when it comes ta special prep..."

"Well, that's what they get for being so damn stupid when it comes to special ingrediants. They're all brawn and no brain."

Tensing up faintly at the sudden voice behind herself, Seika slowly turned her gaze to look over her shoulder. When she did, her eyes instantly widened at the sight before her. Standing there in his usual attire, but with the added desert cape, was none other than the very man that had caused her to become so emotionally closed off to people; the very man that she had once trusted more than she had anyone else and that she had cared for just as much. "...Cedre..."

Cedre smirked faintly as his dark blue eyes were narrowed, but when the young Sword Horn began to growl and bare his fangs, a frown suddenly marred his features as he drifted his gaze onto Ace for a moment. "...Keep that Sword Horn of yours under control or I'll be adding those pretty blue eyes of his to my collection."

At the threat, Seika narrowed her eyes as she rose up onto her feet and quickly stood between the Gourmet Corp. Culinary Head and her partner, Ace. "You'll do no such thing Cedre. I won' let you touch my partner while I'm still alive!"

Though it really had been a viable threat, the moment those last words that the female before him said clicked within in his head, he suddenly halted and his brows creased slightly. He hadn't really expected her to say something like that and though the Sword Horn's eyes **were** very tempting, he easily dismissed the temptation in favor of not wanting to cause any harm to Seika. Sighing softly in defeat, Cedre finally raised his gloved hands at nearly level with his head in a sign of surrender. "Calm down Seika...It was just a warning cause that damn thing growled at me. What did you expect me to do? Just let it?" Casting her an exasperated look now, he lowered his arms back to his sides and shifted on his feet. He felt unusually bare before her eyes this time around. Yes, he had been topless save for the arm sleeves before when they were still friends, but back then, only his face possessed any scars. Now his torso, both front and back, were covered in them too. "Damn it...Look Seika, I didn't come all the way the fork out here and in this damn heat just to fight you, you know."

Now **that** actually got her attention as she slowly relaxed her stance, though admittedly still hesitantly. Now that she actually thought about it, he had a very valid point. Sure Cedre was a Culinary Head within one of the branches in Gourmet Corp., thus one of the stronger fighters that they possessed, but if he was really like how he was back from **before** she knew who he really worked for, then Seika knew that he wouldn't have come all the way out here just to fight her or any of the Heavenly Kings; especially not by himself. On top of that, he hated this sort of heat and if he **had** come to fight them, he would've been in one of those GT Robos, not making an appearance in person...At least not yet, he wouldn't anyways...It was because of all this though, that Seika was now very confused as to what his motives actually were. "...What do you want then if you didn' come ta fight...?"

Cedre hesitated at that. He knew why he was there, but now that he'd finally caught up to her, he found himself suddenly floored in telling her the reason. After all, considering what he did three years ago, he wouldn't blame her if she didn't believe him even if he **did **try to explain. He knew that he certainly wouldn't if **he** had been in her position.

...Three years...

Eyes softening a fraction to where it still wasn't noticable at this bit of distance for the teen before him, he found himself studying her appearance. Her attire had changed a decent bit since the time they'd been apart and her face now held scars of her own; dual curved scars on the inside and outside corners of her left eye from the double claws of a beast. Her eyes were still as deep of a magenta as ever, but he didn't see any bit of the innocence that was once held within them. Her lavender hair had also grown out quite a bit and was held in a high ponytail, but it still looked as soft as ever. As he took in her slightly more matured figure and overall appearance, he couldn't help but feel regretful on yet another thing now, rather than just the lies he had told her the day he last saw her...

...He now also regreted that he hadn't been around these last three years to watch her become this strikingly skilled and even more attractive young woman that now stood before him.

"If you're not gonna tell me what the fork you're doin' here Cedre, then leave. I don' have time for liein' monsters like you..."

That time, Cedre really did visibly wince unlike he had back then. Dark eyes softening even more now at this, he lifted a hand up and brushed it through his short, messy black hair. He had to say **some**thing before she lost her patiance and left. "Look, I...Ngh, damn it. Why the **hell** is this so damn hard?!" Growling under his breath in frustration, he kicked at the stone ground as his fists clenched tightly at his sides; his eyes narrowed in a glare. Forcing himself to calm back down again, he worked to steady his breathing before he tried one more time to explain. "I...Seika, I came all the way out here, by my**self** mind you, cause I couldn't forking stand you despising my damn existance anymore!" Shooting a once again frustrated look towards Seika, he spied the slowly forming surprise within those very eyes he had missed so much. "Gourmet Corp. wants you dead Seika. If you keep digging your nose into our business and helping the Four Kings in stopping us and all, our boss wants any of us that ever crosses your path to **kill** you! Don't you **get** it! Damn it, because of all this crap, your life's in danger now and I hate it!"

Letting all of this sink in, Seika's eyes narrowed slightly as her brows creased inward in confusion; a tiny frown appearing onto her features to add to her look of confusion. Why was he telling her all of this? He was with Gourmet Corp. himself, so why hunt her down just to warn her? What did he expect to gain from all of this? "...Why are you tellin' me this? I can't even tell if you're liein' about any of what you just said or not..."

"What the?...You think I'd **lie** about this crap?" Cedre arched a brow at this as he gave her an incredulous look. "Why the hell would I lie about what Gourmet Corp. plans to do to you and your partner if you keep getting in our damn way?" Shaking his head at this, he sighed in disbelief towards it all before he spoke again. "I'm telling you this cause I forking **care** about you, alright?! What I said back then were nothing but lies! Yes, I'm the Culinary Head of Branch 6 for Gourmet Corp.; I didn't lie about that, but I sure as hell lied about everything else! I never pretended to be your friend or get close to you, I never **once** told my superiors about you, I was never given orders to see if you held any promise as a future chef for Gourmet Corp. either; hell back then, they didn't even **know** someone like you even **existed**! I kept you a damn secret from all of them cause I didn't want them to get their tainted hands on you!"

At this point, all traces of confusion had completely vanished from her face all together. Instead, shock and astonishment filled her delicate features the more Cedre spoke. She knew that she shouldn't believe him; that he was Gourmet Corp. and thus, an enemy, but...

Seika could tell...The frustration and desperation in his tone and expression spoke in volumes. Even his body movement told her that he was telling the truth. That every bit of what he was saying was what he was really feeling. For the first time in what felt like so long, Seika actually felt floored by it all.

Seeing the look upon her face now after he had finished yelling out every bit of what he had been feeling in frustration, he casted a hesitant glance to Ace, who was still laying behind the girl, watching him with a critical eye. Biting his lower lip faintly with his center top fang, he slowly closed the distance between himself and Seika while keeping an eye on the young Sword Horn for any possible hostile movement. When he saw that he wasn't going to attack him without Seika's permission, he finally closed that last bit of distance and suddenly grasped onto the lower portion of her left arm as he yanked her towards him, causing her to gasp in surprise. The instant he felt her collide lightly with his toned, scarred chest, he wrapped his arms securely around her shoulders as he held her closely and buried his face down into her long, lavender hair. Breathing in her scent as his eyes gently closed, he took this possibly last chance to enjoy her warmth and the feel of her smaller form pressed against his. "...Damn it, how did I last as long as I did without feeling this?"

"C-Cedre...?"

"...I'm loyal to Gourmet Corp. and I doubt that'll ever change no matter how much some of the damn members, Bogey Woods especially, pisses me off, but...Damn it, I really missed this. I missed **you**, Seika..." Tightening his hold on the younger girl in a desperate attempt to keep her there and never wishing to let go, he suddenly found himself relaxing out of the tenseness that he hadn't even realized his muscles were in when hesitant, but delicate arms finally found themselves around his waist. An instance of shock was overtaken quickly by a huge wave of relief at Seika finally returning the embrace and at the feel of her actually nuzzling gently at his chest. It was only at her final words though, that it surprisingly took quite a bit of effort not to tear up as he nestled his face into her soft hair once again...

"...I missed you too, Cedre..."

**To be continued.**

_Little Tsu: Yayyy! Cedre finally caught up &amp; it was thanks ta his frustration &amp; temper that he confessed why he was there &amp; towards everythin' else. And ta make it even more worth it for Cedre since we know he's bound ta get punished for this if he's ever found out, Seika actually forgave him. Now what'll happen between the two? I already know for the most part, but I wanna know your thoughts too &amp; as usual, now that this has happened, who d'ya think Seika should end up with? Still the same choices? Or has Cedre actually won ya'lls favor?XD_


	6. Chapter 6

_Ta SilverSun, I'm totally enjoyin' the hell outta myself ta watch ya havin' trouble decidin' who ya want Seika ta end up with more. It's really amusin', but I love your reviews &amp; really glad that ya like the story so much thus far. Hopefully, you'll like my decision on who she ends up with in the end._

_Ta the guest person, now who said anythin' about Seika actually JOININ' Gourmet Corp? *grins* I'm still not sayin' who she actually chooses ta be with romantically, but, even if it does end up bein' Cedre, that don' mean she's gotta join Gourmet Corp ta be with him or the other way around. Plus, she hates Gourmet Corp, remember?...Jus' doesn' hate Cedre...He's too adorable ta hate..._

**Ch: 6**

"So you're really helping out and working with the Heavenly Kings? How's **that** working out for you?"

Seika tilted her head back some as she glanced over at the older man beside her. Both were seated on the stone floor where they had crossed paths once again after three long years of being apart. Luckily, they were now back on better terms with each other again despite supposing to be enemies. "Hn...It's...different...They aren' so bad...Sometimes..."

"...You do realize that the stupid pretty boy with the girly hair beat me while in the Mammoth, right?" Giving his old friend a deadpanned look, Cedre managed to keep his temper from rising and flaring out at even just the mere **thought** of that man. "He humiliated me while I was operating that weak GT Robot and cause of that, I got punished! Hell, I **got** most of these scars from that punishment!" Of course he had to mention all the scars that covered his torso that were visible since he really only wore arm sleeves on his top half, thus leaving his well built chest completely bare for all to see.

Silently studying each scar that adorned his form, Seika couldn't help but smirk the faintest bit. She felt bad that her friend had gone through such a painful punishment, but...well, she had to admit that Cedre definitely worked those scars to his advantage. Unlike all the scars on Zebra, Seika thought her friend seriously made scars look good. However, before she could really voice this out, which those kinda thoughts were a rarity, she suddenly halted as the ground began to tremble almost violently. Blinking slightly, the young girl glanced around in confusion towards what could possibly be causing these tremors in the first place.

Cedre had risen up onto his feet before he reached out and grasped firmly onto Seika's hand as he helped her up onto her feet while her Sword Horn rose up onto his own paws as well. "The fork is going on? Is there an earthquake happening or something? We're in the middle of a god forsaken **desert!"**

Seika had been about to voice her own concerns on the notion, but then her eyes widened as the ceiling above them suddenly collapsed and then an instant later, the floor directly beneath their feet. The young chef released a startled cry at this as all three of them fell through the collapsed floor. As they fell though, she felt something tighten around her hand and when she opened her deep magenta eyes, she was surprised to find that Cedre had yet to have released her hand as she watched him in slight shock. She soon found herself pulled to him in midair as he wrapped his free arm around her waist; holding her closely in a protective manner. "C-Cedre...?"

"I won't let anything happen to you Seika! I'll cushion your fall if I gotta! I'll protect you!"

Shocked even further upon hearing those words, Seika buried her face into the crook of his neck despite the necklace of eyeballs hanging loosely around it. When their descent finally came to an end, she, Cedre, and Ace all smashed onto the floor far below them. However, just as Cedre had promised, he had, in fact, cushioned her fall. Groaning softly as she slowly opened her eyes and lifted her head up, the first thing she noticed when her eyesight managed to focus was Komatsu. So they had finally found him...The second thing she noticed was Toriko and Zebra rising up from their knelt positions from apparently having fallen through as well. That...had been when realization struck her...

**Zebra**...had been what caused the collapse...

Carefully pulling herself out of Cedre's arms, Seika rose up onto her feet and shot a fierce glare towards the bulky, enormous man. "You overgrown moron! You could've gotten us all killed with that reckless stunt! What were you thinkin'?!"

"I was **thinking**...that we needed a shortcut in order to get to the little guy...It was just luck that you got caught up in my attack and ended up down here with us too." It was then that he noticed the scarred up, dark haired young man with Seika as she helped him up onto his feet from him landing on his back. "Hey...Who's the freak with the eyeballs around his neck?"

Toriko tensed up at the sight of the newcomer, but then shook his head as he shot a determined look behind Seika. "We'll get answers and all later. Right now, we have much bigger problems to deal with."

At this, Seika turned halfway around to glance behind herself, only to find her eyes suddenly locking with the murderously hungry ones of the Salamander Sphinx; a capture level 92 mammal type creature. "...Hunh...The holder of the Mellow Cola...Well, I can certainly tell you won' be coughin' up the ingredient so easily..." Watching as the beast lifted up a paw slowly, she tensed up as she shifted on her feet and pulled Cedre with her in the slight shift so that he was directly next to her as an instant later, the Sphinx flicked its paw lightly; its massive claws slicing shockwaves in front of itself as it created three long and rather deep slices through the stone floor. The attack had caused Toriko and Zebra to lift their arms in defense as they just barely avoided getting sliced up, but Seika had remained overall rather calm while Ace and Komatsu were out of the attack's range and Cedre,...well, he had tensed up in mild surprise by the force of the attack, but had managed to remain more or less calm since he trusted Seika's judgement against creatures.

After the attack, Toriko glancing over at Seika from her speaking earlier. "I thought I smelled something about this big guy. The Cola is **inside** him; he reeks of the stuff."

"So then we just gotta cut him open!"

While Komatsu had taken refuge behind a nearby wall, Toriko quickly went on the offense as he launched a Flying Fork at the beast. What caught him by surprise was the fact that he **caught** the attack with his mouth before spitting it out off to the side. "What?! How tough is this thing?!"

"Heh...You're never gonna cut it unless you attack back at the speed of sound." Zebra then firmed his stance and opened his mouth as he released his own attack. _'Single Stroke...Voice Cutter!'_

With the Salamander Sphinx roaring out slightly in surprise and pain as his shoulder was sliced into, sending some of his blood flying, Zebra opened his mouth and caught the blood in it. Unfortunately, he almost immediately spit the blood out. "Blech! Foul! Isn't his blood supposed to be the Mellow Cola?!"

"Zebra! Behind you!"

"Hn?" Glancing behind himself, his eyes suddenly widened in alarm as he was smashed into and sent flying by the beast's whip-like tongue before he swiped out with his claws at Toriko, who had attempted to block with a Fork Shield, though he was sent flying too. As the two smashed into and skidded along the ground, halting near where Komatsu was hiding, both Heavenly Kings righted themselves up and glared towards the beast. "What the hell is going on?! Toriko! You said that the Cola was inside that thing's body!"

"I don't know! I guess it's not it's blood!"

"Well then, what the hell is it?! It better not be it's pee."

"It's tears!"

This got Toriko and Zebra's attention fast as they glanced over at Komatsu and spoke up at the same time. "What?"

"The Mellow Cola. It's the Salamander Sphinx's tears."

At this, Zebra's eyes narrowed slightly in a bit of suspicion. "How do you know that little guy?"

"Ah well,...this book. It has a whole bunch of recipes and ways of special preparation that I've never even heard of before and one of the recipes is the telling of where the Mellow Cola is and how to extract it."

"You can actually read that mess of gobbledy-gook text?"

"Um...Not exactly Zebra, but I can pretty much tell what it says by what the pictures show and the length of the text. I think I can confidently instruct you and Toriko on what to do in order to get the Mellow Cola extracted."

Both hunters fell silent on this, but then exchanged glances before nodding lightly. It was then that Toriko grinned towards his combo partner. "Alright then Komatsu. We leave the preparation to you then. Use us as your cooking tools and direct us on what to do!" He then casted a glance over towards where Seika, Ace, and that strange man with them were, only to see that the three were actually trying to keep the Salamander Sphinx busy even though they weren't really attacking it with the intention to harm it. "Seika! You and Ace get clear! The guy with you too! Zebra and I'll handle getting the Mellow Cola from here!"

Smiling confidently towards them, Komatsu nodded his head sharply. "Right! It's time to prepare...Mellow Cola!"

At hearing the instructions, Seika quickly grabbed Cedre's hand into her own and rushed out of the way with Ace right with her as they got to a safe distance from the battle that was about to erupt...

_**{After a long and exhausting preparation}**_

Both Toriko and Zebra were panting from overexertion at this point. Each one of their attacks and the attacks dealt back **at** them in return had taken it's toll on them as the calories that they needed in order to even use their attacks was nearly depleted at this point.

"Guys! The final step...you need to pummel it's snake tail!"

Glancing over at Komatsu as he yelled this out, both hunters casted their gazes down onto the prone and limply laying snake tail at their feet.

"This thing?"

Chuckling tiredly, Toriko grinned as he flexed an arm and glanced to the larger man. "Lets give it everything we've got left, Zebra!"

"Tch, fine. Lets do this already."

"15-fold..."

"Voice..."

**"SPIKED PUNCH!"**

**"MISSILE!"**

Both hunters unleashed everything they had left in them for that final attack between the two of them as they smashed them down on the top of the snake tail. In response to this, the Salamander Sphinx's eyes began to water even more before they finally bursted some into tears; the Mellow Cola being sent flying. However, the excitement was short lived as not only was Komatsu suddenly attacked from behind, causing him to collapse, but the attacker leaped up and swallowed the batch of Mellow Cola right out of the air before Toriko or any of the others could get any; taking them by surprise.

As the creature landed back on the ground, it's body bursted with dense muscle as it screeched out hungrily. The creature then turned sharply towards Toriko and Zebra and quickly lunged at them. However, before it could strike or they could try to defend despite having now more strength left in them, the unknown creature was suddenly knocked away from the side and sent flying a ways even though he caught itself in midair and flipped to land on the ground again in a squatted position; screeching out at it's assailant angrily.

Seika landed on the ground and straightened up as she brushed her lavender hair back behind herself from over her shoulder. "I know you wish ta keep fightin' and avenge Komatsu, but both of you are exhausted and on top of that, I refuse ta let either of you pull anythin' desperate. That means you especially, Toriko; no Autophagy. I know the risks of it. Besides,...the little chef is still alive..." The female chef then stepped forward as she started to walk slowly towards the creature before them. "I'll deal with this fight myself. Besides,...both of you would have too much trouble against a Nitro in your current states." Halting a few meters away from the now known, Nitro, Seika casted a calm glance over towards Cedre in the distance. "Hey, Cedre. Back me up, would you? I'm gonna count on you ta watch my back against this Nitro since I don' trust this thing near my Ace...He'd eat my Sword Horn in an instant if given even an instant of an openin'..."

Narrowing his dark blue eyes at this, Cedre smirked as he took a stance to get ready to fight as well while Ace took a few steps back. "You got it Seika. That ugly bastard won't get the jump on you while I'm here. Too bad it's eyes aren't cute enough for me to add to my collection though." As the head chef of Branch 6 became serious now and scowled lightly, he watched the creature before him closely. _'So that thing is what Gourmet Corp. based those GT Robots off of...Wonder what the real deal is capable of...'_

As he thought this, Seika unsheathed her Melk Knife and flicked the blade swiftly in front of her, releasing a slicing shockwave in front of her to strike the Nitro, who quickly leaped up into the air as it dodged the attack that sliced deeply through the floor. Quickly lifting her head up towards the creature, she went to try and defend, but just before she could, the Nitro was suddenly punched hard into the side of the face as it was sent flying; smashing head first into a boulder. Blinking slightly at this, her deep magenta gaze landed on the male standing before her. Cedre had really done as he promised and backed her up.

Casting a downward glance towards the smaller chef, Cedre chuckled softly and smirked almost cockily. "What? Don't act so surprised. I told you I'd watch your back and that's just what I plan to do. Like hell I'm gonna just let that thing try to eat you." He then brought his gaze back onto the Nitro as it bursted out of the rubble and screeched in fury. "Now lets take this thing down together Seika like old times."

With a nod of her head in agreement, both chefs rushed in to attack. As Cedre went to unleash another attack, the Nitro quickly retaliated this time and threw a punch at him; striking Cedre before he could as he sent the older of the duo flying. Unfortunately for the Nitro though, that left him wide open as Seika narrowed her eyes furiously at what the creature did to her friend and lashed out, creating multiple slicing shockwaves from her blade as the waves sliced into the Nitro, causing it to cry out in pain. Writhing on the ground in pain for a moment, the Nitro got his barrings back and rose back up onto his feet. When he glanced over at Seika, he suddenly rushed in and lashed out with his claws, sending slices of wind rapidly through the air as he actually copied the girl's technique that she had used with her Melk Knife.

Eyes widening in surprise by this, Seika was unable to react quickly enough as she ended up taking the full brunt of the winds slices, though she had managed to at least cross her arms in front of herself in an attempt to shield her face from harm. Feeling the slices cut both shallowly and deeply into her body, she clenched her eyes and teeth tightly shut as she struggled to endure the pain. Unfortunately, the moment the slices ended, Seika was then knocked for a loop as she was sent flying by a punch to the gut, which finally caused her to cry out in pain. Expecting herself to feel the heavy impact of rock or stone, the young chef was taken by surprise once more when she suddenly felt a body instead. Weakly peeking an eye open, she found herself locking gazes with Cedre. He had actually caught and braced her impact again. "C-Cedre..."

"Hang on, ok? We'll kill that stupid Nitro and then you can drink that Mellow Cola so you can heal." As he said this, he then heard the Nitro suddenly screech out loudly in anguish. Quickly glancing over at the creature, wondering what was going on, he suddenly found himself staring at multiple bladed shards slicing through and sticking out of the Nitro. "What the fork?" Who was attacking it? When Cedre followed the direction the blade shards were flying rapidly from, his dark eyes widened slightly in surprise that it was actually **Ace** that was attacking. He had never fought a Sword Horn before, especially, not one that had Gourmet Cells actually flowing through him, but he had admittedly forgotten that his kind were beasts that had the ability to attack from a distance. It was when the shards finally stopped flying from his horns, that he heard the young Sword Horn growl angrily and took a fierce step forward before opening his jaws as Ace released a burst of icy breath. Cedre watched as the attack hit it's mark and froze the writhing Nitro onto the ground, though it's head was still free. _'Shit...I heard that Sword Horn were tough, but...Ah hell, Ace is above even his own kind with those Gourmet Cells in him and he's not even fully grown yet!...Gonna have to have Seika remind me never to piss her pet off.'_

Seeing his opportunity, Zebra stalked over to the struggling and dieing Nitro before hovering over it's head. Opening his mouth, he released an attack that only the Nitro would be able to hear for obvious reasons. _'Death Sound!'_ Watching the Nitro finally go prone on the ground, he glanced back over at Toriko, who was helping Komatsu get back up onto his feet. Luckily that Sound Armor he had put around the little guy had taken most of the force from that attack or he really would've been dead. "Well, this was a waste. How do we get the Mellow Cola now? None of us have the energy to go through all that stupid prep crap again."

Seika grunted weakly as she used a bent over Cedre's shoulders as her crutch to keep her standing, though he also had an arm secured around her waist too. "Th-That was only the fizz...The real amount is...hundreds of times more than that...L-Look." Weakly shifting her head towards the Salamander Sphinx, the group could only watch as the geyser practically exploded so to speak and hundreds upon thousands of gallons the real Mellow Cola spilled out of the beast's tear ducts. Smiling weakly to herself as she watched Toriko, Zebra, and Komatsu cheer and drink some of the Cola that spilled out to not only evolve their cells, as per for those with the gourmet cells, but also heal their wounds and regain their lost strength, the youngest of the three chefs there sighed softly as her eyes gently closed. _'Maybe workin' along side the Heavenly Kings isn' so bad after all...'_

"Hey, don't you fall asleep on me now Seika. You still need to heal those damn wounds of yours. Lets drink some of this Mellow Cola. We sure as hell deserved it after all this damn trouble we went through. Hell, even your partner pet is already enjoying himself on the stuff and it's obviously compatible with his Gourmet Cells." With that, Cedre helped the younger chef to the Mellow Cola as he also helped her to get some. Watching as she drank what he had managed to get in the palm of his hand, he couldn't help but smile as her wounds began to quickly heal and her own Gourmet Cells kicked in and got stronger just as it had done for Toriko, Zebra, and Ace. When he pulled his now empty palm away, he blinked slightly in confusion when Seika's own smaller hands had grasped onto it to halt his movement. "Huh? Seika?"

Glancing up at Cedre, the eighteen-year-old chef blushed faintly at the care and tenderness that her friend showed towards her that he never showed towards anyone else and finally smiled shyly up at him. "Thank you Cedre...For coming back..."

Of course those words weren't so simple. Cedre knew they had a lot more meaning than simply 'coming back'. Dark blue eyes softening at this, he smiled tenderly at her and curled his fingers around her own hands as he nodded his head. "Don't mention it. I may be an enemy, but I couldn't stand you hating me anymore. I needed to at least **try** and get you back..."

"...I thought that name sounded familiar...You're from Gourmet Corp., aren't you?"

Both Seika and Cedre tensed up faintly at those words before bringing their gazes over towards Toriko, Zebra, and Komatsu. They had managed to gather up all the Mellow Cola they could carry with the Gourmet Rucksack, but now Toriko had taken a step or two away from the others as he narrowed his eyes towards Cedre. Biting her bottom lip slightly at this, Seika quickly pulled her hands out of Cedre's and got in front of him so she stood between the two males...Though her lack there of in height didn't really do too much since she was practically a foot smaller than Cedre and Toriko was even bigger! "Toriko, no...Don' you dare attack Cedre. He just finished helpin' us get the Mellow Cola and he helped me out and tried ta protect me from the Nitro...You won' hurt him..."

"Seika, he's a **member** of **Gourmet Corp.!** He's the enemy! How can you just stand there and defend him after everything he's clearly done before this?!" Toriko glared sharply at Seika, but it was easy to see that she refused to back down and let him take down the man behind her. As he kept his gaze locked with her's though, he seemed to catch something in her gaze. It was then that it actually dawned on him. "...He's the reason, isn't he? For how closed off you acted during all that time since Coco found you three years ago." When she didn't answer, he knew that he had hit the nail on that. It was obvious that they had made up though despite still being enemies and judging from what all he had seen since Zebra's reckless move of collapsing the ground out from under them, enemy or not, this Gourmet Corp. member showed true care towards Seika. Toriko wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not though considering judging by what he was feeling, this guy was one of the stronger members. Not a Vice-Chef, but most likely one of those head chefs he had heard about that lead the different branches. Seeing that Seika still held firm in staying between them, Toriko finally sighed in defeat as he closed his eyes. "Alright, alright. I won't kill the guy...But man, Coco's gonna flip when he learns about this Seika. You know how protective and all his is of you. How do you think he's gonna react to learning that you have a boyfriend in Gourmet Corp.?"

That last bit...instantly caused both chefs before him to flush deeply as they yelled out at Toriko in a fluster mess. "Y-You've got it all wrong! Toriko, we're not together! Not like that!"

"Yeah, damn it! The hell are you thinking you stupid Heavenly King?!"

Having not expected such reactions from either of them, especially, not a Gourmet Corp. higher up, Toriko turned around and headed back to Zebra and Komatsu to head out of the Gourmet Pyramid as he laughed loudly. As they left though, Seika and Cedre followed behind while still flusteredly yelling at him and denying that they had that sort of relationship or even felt something like that towards each other with Ace following closely by the two flustered and embarrassed chefs.

Toriko couldn't help but find the whole thing amusing. Compared to the Cedre he and the others had met within the Regal Mammoth while he was using the GT Robot, it seemed that he was completely different when around Seika. He actually didn't seem that bad despite his loyalties to Gourmet Corp. and his creepy hobby of collecting eyeballs. He supposed that not **all** of Gourmet Corp. was completely bad like Tommyrod and Grinpatch were...

**To be continued.**

_Little Tsu: Ok, that's that for that chap. I can't help but kinda imagine that Cedre would have a softer side ta him. Like he acts rude and tough ta put up a front ta fool his enemies and those he works with, but around someone he cares about, he actually can't help but show that soft side...Sorta like how he shows that side when he plays with the eyeballs in his collection and shows affection towards them...Annnd I just compared Seika ta Cedre's eyeball collection...*facepalms*_

_Till next time! And keep guessin' on who she ends up with cause I still won' tell yet! lol_

_Side note: I skipped the whole preparation of the Mellow Cola cause that woulda made the chap like twice the length it already is, which it's already over 4.4k.x.x_


	7. Chapter 7

_Little Tsu: Ok, so simply put, this is the next chapter of the story. Toriko &amp; the others finished their job ta get the Mellow Cola &amp; even had surprising help from Gourmet Corp.'s very own Culinary Head of Branch 6, Cedre, himself. Talk about a rather odd turn of events for the group that was supposed to have been his enemy._

_Now Seika &amp; her partner, Ace have separated from Toriko &amp; the others once again. What's in store for her next?_

**Ch: 7**

"...So this is the beast you need me ta bring in, huh?"

Lowering the information sheet that possessed a picture of the wanted ingredient along with its name, location, and bits of other gathered info that was managed to acquire on it, Seika drifted her magenta gaze onto the young man before her that was in a sleek cream colored suit and swept back dark blond hair. She had done business with Mr. Hanzo Shiimata before so she knew he had quite the deep pockets.

Nodding his head from where he was seated on the other side of the table, he casted the young chef a calm smile. "The Salmon Wyvern has quite the capture level on their heads, but I have zero doubt in your capabilities towards your success over this beast. Their meat is extremely juicy, but I, unfortunately, have not had it since I was a still a boy. I will pay you however much you wish for the capture of even one of those beasts and return it to the restaurant here in Gourmet Town that I manage." Of course he wasn't a chef himself, but he did co-own the business as the corporate manager of the world wide chain that it possessed. The one in Gourmet Town just happened to be one of the most visited out of said chains, though that wasn't where they were currently meeting. Oh no, Seika had a preference of meeting up with clients at the Bar Heavy Lodge that Moriji ran.

"Any price as usual, hm?" Remembering the price on the beast along with the average weight of an adult, she calculated the math on how much bringing in a whole one would round up. "Well, considerin' it's 120,000yen for just a hundred grams and a fully grown Salmon Wyvern is around twelve tons, you'd normally be lookin' at over thirteen billion yen right there, Hanzo. How**ever**,...since you're one of my usual clients, and a very loyal one at that, I'll give you a discount since you're askin' for the whole dragon...I'll ask for only one billion yen. Do we have a deal?"

Even though money was really no object for him, Hanzo still gladly accepted the discount price that she was offering him. He didn't even mind the fact that she said his first name with such familiarity. After all, he had been a client of her's a countless number of times over the last few years; even when she was still a novice and just getting her name out there in the world. "You have yourself a deal. Bring in a whole Salmon Wyvern and I'll gladly forward the amount into your account. After all, you'll have earned every yen, given the capture level of this creature..." With that said, Hanzo rose up from the table he had been seated at and gave a respectful nod towards Seika before leaving the bar; effectively ignoring the Gourmet Hunters that were eating and drinking within the place.

Sighing softly to herself towards this, she slipped the information into her pocket for the time being before rising up onto her own feet and glancing over towards Moriji. Seeing him cleaning up some of the mugs, she gave him a slight nod of her head. "I'll make sure you get a portion of my earnings as usual, Moriji."

"Seika, you really are one amusing girl to watch whenever you come in here." Chuckling softly towards this, he then shook his head before smirking. "You planning to put that money towards that special equipment you want made for your partner or is it gonna be for something else this time?"

The young woman was silent for a moment as she seemed to think on this, but then nodded her head lightly. "...Put it towards the special armor...That equipment is costin' a serious amount ta be made in order ta suit Ace perfectly with everythin'..." She then casted a glance around the entirety of the bar as she scanned all the Gourmet Hunters that were present carefully. Due to her ability, she recognized practically each and every one of them along with basic information on them. However, just as she was finishing up in doing a facial memory sweep of all the present hunters, her gaze suddenly halted, only to actually narrow, when they landed upon the back of a decently built man in mostly black with a turban-like covering over his head to cover a good portion of his black hair. "...Damn it..."

Stalking over towards the man she had her gaze locked onto in irritation, she soon halted directly behind him as she crossed her arms over her chest and began tapping her booted foot against the floor. "If you're gonna stalk me, put more effort into it, Coco."

Said man, who had been revealed to be Coco, straightened up a bit more in his seat before turning his head to raise his gaze towards the teen with a kind, innocent smile. "Now if I were to put more effort into it, then that would mean me admitting to stalking you when that clearly isn't the case at all."

"Oh really now?...Then what could possibly be your reason for bein' here of all places?"

Rising up onto his feet after releasing his empty cup of tea, Coco closed his eyes gently as he still smiled, though it was now directed downwards since he was standing rather than sitting. "Well, I predicted that you would be here and possibly taking on another job so I came to see what kind it would be for myself."

"That's considered stalkin'!...And practically spyin' too!" Seika's features quickly became flustered towards this as she got slightly riled up by the quite a bit older man before her. He had been able to do this on multiple occasions and she tended to get rather confused by his intentions behind it all. After all, Coco, at times, acted as an older brother would towards a little sister, yet on a few occasions, he acted as if she was something more than that to him. Add in the factor that he still wished to form a combo with her even though he didn't voice it out anymore and you get one massively confusing and strange friendship between them.

Finally sighing softly in exasperation towards all this, Seika shook her head before turning back around to head for the door once more. "If you must know, I'm headin' ta the Gourmet World ta kill and bring back a whole Salmon Wyvern for my client. And no, I don' need nor **want** your help, Coco so go back home already. I know you got here by ridin' on Kiss' back." When she didn't hear him try to speak up in argument or anything, she halted once she stepped outside and went to turn around, only to find herself face first into the Gourmet Hunter's chest. Muffling a faint yelp of surprise from this, she took a step or two back and shot a glare up at Coco, who was smiling a bit guiltily and apologetically towards her cause of the tiny collision. "The hell Coco?!"

"I apologize for this, Seika, but I can't simply let you do this job alone. Especially, not now that I know where it intends to take you. I understand fully that you've likely been to the Gourmet World before for certain ingredients requested by your clients, but that doesn't lessen the amount of danger that such a place offers." It was then that Coco actually narrowed his dark eyes seriously and frowned faintly in a show of his conviction. "Whether you wish for me to or not, I'm going with you to help." With that said, Coco didn't even bother to wait for the young chef's attempt to argue back on this. Instead, he headed over to his Emperor Crow, Kiss and leaped up onto his back. "Well? Are we heading out or not? I'm not exactly certain on if your client gave you a specific time frame to get the ingredient to him or not, though it's likely that he did like clients normally request..."

Right eye twitching faintly towards this, Seika grumbled under her breath in a rather immature fashion before meeting her Sword Horn halfway and climbing up onto his back when he had lowered himself closer to the ground in a crouch. "Fine, fine. Jeez, when'd you get to be so damn stubborn, Coco?...So much for being the _'gentleman'_ of the Four Kings. You're as pushy as the rest of them..." Still grumbling to herself on this, the chef motioned for her partner to get moving, causing the beast to turn around a bit sharply with his legs overlapping for a moment in the movement and taking off in a quick, yet graceful stride down the streets. Her companion easily avoided trampling any of the humans that still walked the streets and enjoyed themselves, though many of them had actually stopped to gap at the sight. After all, it never seemed to cease to amaze them at seeing Seika and her Sword Horn within Gourmet Town nor anywhere else, really. On top of that, she also had Coco of the Four Heavenly Kings following right above them upon Kiss' back so that also likely added to the shock and awe upon their faces.

It had taken them a while due to the distance they had to travel, but thanks to their partner animals, it didn't take them quite as long as it normally would have via any other mode of transportation. Upon arriving at one of the entrances into the Gourmet World, Seika carefully scanned the area into the distance as she tried to sense out any presence. The gourmet cells may have effected her memory and made it capable for her to memorize anything and anyone that she merely even gave a single glance at, but the young chief had an innate ability to sense auras and the distance that they were at. She could never see the Shadow of Death like Coco could, but that was because she didn't see auras. Her sixth sense literally felt them out and her mind gave her the direction they were in, the distance, and an educated guess on how dangerous the owner of the auras were.

Sadly, her guesses on how powerful they were usually only tended to be right thirty percent of the time. That was because she was young, still, and due to that fact, she still had much training to do in order to hone out her sixth sense.

Finally picking up on the familiar aura that she was trying to locate the direction of so that they wouldn't wander about aimlessly in such dangerous territory, Seika hailed Coco down to more her's and Ace's level. "I'm picking up on a small flock of Salmon Wyvern. They feel like they're nestin' around the southeast edge of Area 8's Slow Rain Hills..." As she said this, Seika's brows furrowed slightly as she softly muttered to herself the next part. "...Area 8's where Heracles rules..." Shaking her head lightly in an attempt to clear her thoughts, she continued speaking. "I'm sensin' other beasts that feel a lot more dangerous than them around, but...if we're quick and move carefully, we should be able ta avoid detection since they feel spread out enough..."

"Seika, are you able to pick up on what any of the creatures might be since you have been to the Gourmet World a few times due to client requests?" Coco drifted his calm gaze over towards her. He wanted to know if she was able to. After all, due to his gourmet cell enhanced abilities towards his sight, he had been the one to try and help the younger chief to hone her own abilities with training. He wanted to see if she had gotten any better to at least be able to have the aura shape itself in her mind to let her see what it was she was sensing.

Biting her bottom lip a bit, Seika closed her eyes gently as she tried to focus on the less familiar ones that she was sensing and tried to find something in her memory that could possibly give her a clue as to what it was she was feeling. "...There's a number of Phantom Beast Heracs, but...I can't distinguish which ones they are...But they're all grouped together somewhat too, though a bit sporadic...There's one more aura that I sense around Slow Rain Hills, but there's a good distance between it and where the targets are...I think..." Shaking her head lightly, Seika sighed softly and she tilted her head down. "The image that appeared in my mind was extremely hazy and fuzzy, but...I think it might've been the Hell Kong...Based on my memory when readin' up on the different sections of the eight main Areas within the Gourmet World, the only two beasts really known ta have Slow Rain Hills as their habitat were the Salmon Wyvern and the Hell Kong..."

"...I see...Well, hopefully that beast keeps its distance. I think we shall be having our hands full enough with the target as it is. Facing a Hell Kong on top of that would likely be far too much at our current skill to handle..."

"A single Hell Kong are capture level 500...So yeah. I would think even just one would be way too much ta handle at our own current levels and a group of them would be a death sentence for certain..." Sighing softly again, Seika continued to stare on ahead while Coco remained silent. If she remembered the maps she memorized, then the safest route to their destination would be...

"...Seika?"

Snapping out of it, she glanced up at Coco from her place seated upon Ace's back and shook her head lightly when she spied his patient, yet faintly concerned gaze. Maybe he thought she was having second thoughts on this for now. "Sorry. I was tryin' ta remember how this terrain was and choose the safest route that would take us ta Area 8...The only one we could take that would allow us ta avoid goin' through the Poison Tide, would be ta traverse through Yutou Island...The only problem is that once at the east shore of the island, we'll need ta go through the Gold Swamp if we wanna enter the continent's mainland..."

Nodding his head lightly in understanding, Coco allowed his gaze to break away from Seika's and fall onto the sights before them from where they stood. His sight was directly upon Yutou Island, which ran extremely closely along the Poison Tide. It was the safest route to take for someone like Seika and Ace since both could neither fly nor were they built up with hundreds of thousands of different poisons within them to counter that of the Poison Tide like he possibly could. "That would be our best course, but...from what little I have heard about the Gold Swamp, it's not particularly easy to traverse. In fact, the Steel Clouds that I've heard stories about that rest above it are very dangerous to the point where you are almost certain to die if you don't dive under the Gold Swamp, which that, in itself, is no easy task to accomplish..." Shaking his head lightly to clear his thoughts, Coco brought his gaze back onto Seika curiously. "Perhaps it's best if we locate a village or something while traversing through Yutou Island. I had heard tales of people that reside in the Gourmet World as their home and have built villages and towns in different areas of the world. If we manage to find one such place, perhaps the residents would be kind enough to assist us."

"That...might not work, Coco...There's no villages **on** Yutou Island...For one, it's too barren and is a complete maze of nothin' but rock...I've been ta one of the villages before that's within Area 8 though, but I'd only been there once and it had been through a different means of travel. They seemed nice enough, but they were...different...Lets just put it at that...One resident, especially, but you'll probably find out about that later if we make a stop there..." Deciding to continue onward at this point, rather than dawdle any longer, the two companions motioned for their partner animals to get moving as they quickly made their way into Yutou Island and thus soon making way through the massive maze-like area that it was vastly known for. Thankfully their partners were intelligent. Kiss was able to direct well enough from the skies above the maze so they wouldn't get lost and Ace was able to follow the range of scents in the far off distance that lead directly to the Gold Swamp with his nose.

"In any case, Coco, once we arrive at the Gold Swamp, we'll have ta be extra careful and quick about it. Since we don' have a beast that can take us under the Gold Swamp in order ta avoid the Steel Clouds, we'll have ta have Kiss and Ace rely completely on their speed in order ta outrun them before they descend onto the area. If we're lucky though, we might catch crossing the Gold Swamp when the sky's clear of any clouds..."

"I see...That would be rather beneficial if they skies were cleared. Hopefully, both our luck will hold out during our time within the Gourmet World towards, at the least, the terrain..."

At Coco's comment, Seika merely nodded her head lightly in agreement and stayed silent after that. Yes, one could only hope, but if her calculations were correct on the matter, then they should be able to cross without worrying about the Steel Clouds. However, it was the journey back that concerned her, for she knew that by then, the skies would no longer be clear and the clouds would begin their descent, thus blocking their earlier way across the Gold Swamp.

Either way,...this was not gonna be an easy journey for them...

**To be continued.**

_Little Tsu: Ok so...due to Seika and, by invitin' himself, Coco enterin' the Gourmet World for Seika's latest client's request, this story might become a few chapters longer than I at first estimated it'd be. Also, a guest appearance will show themselves in the next chap that I'm sure you readers will love and no, it's not Cedre...Though once he finds out where Seika's gone and who with by their spies, he's bound ta wanna chase after her again...And possibly yell at her for goin' somewhere dangerous without him. lol_

_Anyways, till next time._


End file.
